EU offering UK "emergency brake" on migrant benefits -sources

BRUSSELS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The European Union is offering
Britain a new "emergency brake" rule that could help curb
immigration from other EU states in a reform package before a
British referendum on EU membership, sources close to the
negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.

The proposal would give any member state that could convince
EU governments that its welfare system was under excessive
strain a right to deny benefits to new workers arriving from
other EU countries for up to four years. That has been a key
demand of Prime Minister David Cameron and one which many EU
leaders have said risks conflict with citizens' treaty rights.

Cameron will discuss the proposal in Brussels on Friday with
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose
institution would have to initiate any such legislation, sources
said. Cameron is keen to have measures adopted that can convince
Britons to vote to stay in the EU, possibly as early as June.

If he and Juncker agree, then a broader, outline package of
EU reforms could be approved by Cameron in a meeting on Sunday
with European Council President Donald Tusk. Much of the rest of
the package has already been broadly agreed, the sources said.

Tusk, who chairs EU summits, is expected to circulate
written proposals on reform to the other 27 EU governments early
next week with the aim of resolving remaining disagreements when
EU leaders next meet in Brussels on Feb. 18-19.